Written Answers Tuesday 16 February 2010

Scottish Executive

Constitution

Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated cost is of establishing all government and regulatory initiatives in an independent Scotland.

Bruce Crawford: Scotland already has well established governmental and regulatory structures. The cost of establishing any additional structures to ensure appropriate accountability and scrutiny for matters which are currently the responsibility of the UK Government would be determined by the framework adopted by the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government following independence. The member should of course be aware that similar nations often deliver government services at a lower cost than the UK and there are significant opportunities for Scotland to make savings in the cost of governmental and regulatory structures. For example, the UK spent nearly twice as much as Norway, and almost two-thirds more than Finland, as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), on tax administration in 2007.

Drugs Misuse

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it considers that the national drugs strategy is making in tackling problem drug use.

Fergus Ewing: Significant progress is being made in the delivery of the Drugs Strategy. Since the launch of the Road to Recovery, the Scottish Government, COSLA and its partners have taken forward a wide range of action to give effect to its aspirations including:

  a new HEAT (Health improvement, Efficiency, Access, Treatment) target for access to drugs services, backed by significant additional funding;

  a new delivery framework for local action on alcohol and drugs, with new Alcohol and Drug Partnerships established across Scotland;

  the recruitment of a new group of "National Support Co-ordinators" working with those local partnerships, and

  a new Recovery Consortium established to develop and promote understanding of how best services can genuinely support recovery from problem drug use.

  This work has been supported by an investment of £76.4 million for front line drugs services from 2007-08 to 2009-10. In 2010-11 we intend to allocate a further £28.6 million, with the approval of Parliament, representing an increase of over 20% since 2006-07. To measure the impact of this activity we have invested in the enhancement of the Scottish Drugs Misuse Database that will in time enable us to monitor drug treatment outcomes.

  To ensure that the progress of the strategy is appropriately and effectively scrutinised and challenged, the Scottish Government committed to establishing a Drugs Strategy Delivery Commission. The commission which is independently chaired and includes sectoral expertise from the medical profession, prisons, families, voluntary sector, law enforcement and local government, as well as individuals with direct experience of recovery, met for the first time on the 3 December 2009.

Prison Service

Willie Coffey (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive in which prisons detainees are able to access assistance with a communication impairment from the local learning disabilities team.

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Willie Pretswell, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

  Prisoners in all prisons are able, following suitable assessment, to access assistance to address their individual needs, and subject to appropriate referral to a local team equipped to address that need.